The Gujarat State Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission has upheld a Surat consumer court’s decision ordering a gynaecologist to pay over Rs 2 lakh to a patient for forgetting a surgical sponge in her uterus after a caesarean in 2003.TNN | April 02, 2017, 18:50 IST

AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat State Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission has upheld a Surat consumer court’s decision ordering a gynaecologist to pay over Rs 2 lakh to a patient for forgetting a surgical sponge in her uterus after a caesarean in 2003.

When the dispute reached the consumer court in Surat, it held the doctor responsible for negligence and ordered her to compensate the patient for the same.

In this case, a resident of Olpad – Parulben Thakor was admitted to Dr Heena Parikh’s hospital in Surat for delivery on January 23, 2003.

The next day, the doctor informed patient’s relatives that there was some complication and a caesarian operation was required for delivery of the baby. A daughter was born to Thakor.

Three days after the surgery, the woman started feeling severe pain in her abdomen and began bleeding profusely.

Dr Parikh took help of other doctors to treat her. The patient was finally discharged in the first week of February.

But, her pain did not subside and she was operated again in April by another doctor in presence of four other doctors.

During the second surgery, a piece of surgical sponge was recovered from patient’s abdomen. The patient later had to undergo a third surgery. Later, she approached consumer court and demanded compensation.

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